Msica como cura; msica como mal - Harmnica de vidro: desaparecimento com a crena de que enlouquecia ou fazia apare

cer fantasmas... he instrument's popularity did not last far beyond the 18th century. Some claim this was due to strange rumors that using the instrument caused both musicians a nd their listeners to go mad. It is a matter of conjecture how pervasive that be lief was; all the commonly cited examples of this rumor are German, if not confi ned to Vienna. One example of fear from playing the glass harmonica was noted by a German music ologist Friedrich Rochlitz in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung: The harmonica excessively stimulates the nerves, plunges the player into a n agging depression and hence into a dark and melancholy mood that is apt method f or slow self-annihilation. If you are suffering from any nervous disorder, you s hould not play it; if you are not yet ill you should not play it; if you are fee ling melancholy you should not play it.[14] Marianne Kirchgessner was an armonica player; she died at the age of 39 of pneum onia or an illness much like it.[15] However, others, including Franklin, lived long lives. By 1820 the glass armonica had disappeared from public performance, perhaps because musical fashions were changing music was moving out of the relat ively small aristocratic halls of Mozart's day into the increasingly large conce rt halls of Beethoven and his successors, and the delicate sound of the armonica simply could not be heard. A modern version of the "purported dangers" claims that players suffered lead po isoning because armonicas were made of lead glass. However, there is no known sc ientific basis for the theory that merely touching lead glass can cause lead poi soning. Furthermore, many modern versions, such as those made by Finkenbeiner, a re made from pure silica glass.[16] Lead poisoning was common in the 18th and ea rly 19th centuries for both armonica players and non-players alike: doctors pres cribed lead compounds for a long list of ailments, and lead or lead oxide was us ed as a food preservative and in cookware and eating utensils. Trace amounts of lead that armonica players in Franklin's day received from their instruments wou ld likely have been dwarfed by lead from other sources.[17] (Wikipedia http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_harmonica) Cf. The Glass Harmonica by Louise Marley (2000) Cf. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_kPOI5wPZE&feature=endscreen&NR=1 Cf. Tune Your Brain, by Elizabeth Miles Miracles of Mind, Russell Targ and Jane Katra Mind Trek, by Joseph McMoneagle

Cf. Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy, by Robert Jourdain; a marvelous book full of scientific, artistic, and historical tidbits. Visit William Wilde Zeitler s excellent web page at www.glassarmonica.com for pict ures, sound bites, history, and a wealth of links.